Taking part in the IPL will help me for the T20 World Cup: Azmatullah Omarzai

Afghanistan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai reckons that being part of Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 will help him prepare for the ICC T20 World Cup to be played in the USA and the West Indies in June 2024.

The 23-year-old was picked up by Gujarat Titans at the mini-auction for his base price of ₹50 lakh, which surprised many critics as he had a fantastic ODI World Cup. The Afghanistan cricketer smashed 353 runs in eight innings and claimed seven wickets with his medium pace.

In an interview with Cricbuzz, Omarzai opened up about how playing in the IPL will benefit him. He commented:

"Certainly it (taking part in the IPL) will help me for the World Cup. IPL is a top league and all the big players of the world take part in the competition and all of them are very experienced so it will be good for me that I will have the experience for the World Cup.

"I will have preparation (for the world cup) considering it is such a tournament that all the games are close and there is lot of pressure involved and lot of crowd comes. The environment is good and competitive. It will be good for me as the pressure that will come in the World Cup I will get used to in the IPL," he further added.

The talented cricketer stated that his plan for the IPL is to work hard and keep believing in his skills.

Omarzai has so far featured in 22 ODIs and 30 T20Is for Afghanistan, scoring 490 and 252 runs respectively. With the ball, he has picked up 13 and 17 scalps respectively.

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Azmatullah Omarzai’s impressive performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup

The 23-year-old was a key member of the Afghanistan side that came up with a highly impressive performance in the 2023 ODI World Cup. He contributed 62 off 69 in the match against India in Delhi, hitting two fours and four sixes.

Omarzai hammered an unbeaten 73 off 63 balls in the thumping seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Pune and contributed a defiant 97* off 107 balls, smacking seven fours and three sixes, in the match against South Africa in Ahmedabad.

The right-arm pacer also chipped in with the ball, claiming two wickets each against New Zealand and Australia respectively, finishing with seven wickets in the tournament.